About Clare K. Rothschild

Clare Komoroske Rothschild is Professor in the Department of Theology at Lewis University, just outside of Chicago, Illinois. As of March 2016, she has a joint appointment as Professor Extraordinary in the Department of Ancient Studies at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from the University of Chicago (2003), an M.T.S. in Theology from Harvard Divinity School and a B.A. in Classical Music from the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation appeared as the publication, Luke-Acts and the Rhetoric of History (WUNT 2.175; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2004). This study offers a comprehensive analysis of Luke-Acts in terms of popular rhetorical techniques evident in the works of other Hellenistic and early Roman period historians. Her second book, Baptist Traditions and Q (WUNT; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005) provides an in-depth analysis of why current models of Q feature traditions concerning John the Baptist both prominently and favorably. Her third book is titled Hebrews as Pseudepigraphon: The History and Significance of the Pauline Attribution of Hebrews (WUNT: Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009). This study presents the status quaestionis of the role of Heb 13:20—25, arguing that these few verses were not composed de novo. Rather, the author of Hebrews deliberately adopted words and phrases from a collection of accepted Pauline materials to imply apostolic authorship for the work overall. The goal of this forgery was to foster a perception of the book’s often radical views as orthodox. The discussion is informed by, but also attempts to move beyond the latest understandings of pseudonymity among early Christian texts.

Her tertiary interests take in other aspects of the literary worlds of Graeco-Roman and Second Temple Judaism in its various forms of expression in Palestine and the Diaspora. Past research projects include Second Temple Jewish creation cosmologies, as well as the epistemology of Jewish wisdom literature. In 1999, a generous fellowship led her to spend a few weeks at an archaeological site in Israel with the Combined Caesarea Expeditions. In 2006 she received a Humboldt Fellowship to spend the academic school year in Munich, Germany. In January 2009 she took part in Emory University’s two and a half week long Turkey Research Travel Seminar where she lectured on Pisidian Antioch. In Summer 2009 she received an additional Humboldt Fellowship to research her fourth book project at Humboldt University in Berlin.

She has held teaching positions at McCormick Seminary, Xavier University, Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame and DePaul University. Courses include Hebrew Bible, Jewish Wisdom Literature, Early Christian Origins, New Testament/Early Christian Literature, and the Apostle Paul. She currently serves as editor of Early Christianity, a new journal of the publisher, Mohr Siebeck. She also serves on the Steering Committee of the Society of Biblical Literature’s Group, Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti, and is an active member of the Society of Biblical Literature, Catholic Biblical Association, North American Patristics Society, and Midwest SBL and Chicago Society of Biblical Research. Last year she served as President of the Chicago Society of Biblical Research. In 2009/2010 she served as Vice President of the Midwest SBL. Each year she delivers research papers in seminars and conferences all over the world.

She is editor of the journal, Early Christianity and serves on boards and committees in her field all over the world. In 2010, an interest in Greco-Roman literature led to completion of the first-ever translation (with colleague Trevor Thompson) into English of the second-century physician Galen's Greek letter, De indolentia - "one of the most spectacular finds ever of ancient literature" (V. Nutton). She is writing a book on the depiction of St. Paul as the ancient Cretan seer Epimenides in Acts 17, as well as a monograph arguing against the authenticity of the earliest canon list known as the Muratorian Fragment.